emilyva
I like your suggestion for Gainea, but I'm not sure I like the sound of Gainean (like a person from Gainea) Guy-neigh-en? I just need to think about that.Nina won't be mentioned very much. She is really only mentioned in Nerea's memories of her mother's banishment.
The romance between Mayim and Fintan is just a back story. Its kind of Nerea's source of anger. Because the war wouldn't bother her nearly as much (she is a princess and the daughter of the head of the military, Gaiea would never get close to her) if her parents hadn't been separated by it. I use it as the intro to the story in a way. Aroa isn't really that big in the scheme of the story. She is a source of anger for Evren kind of, that he was stuck for one hundred and thirty years and lost everyone he loved. She really doesn't come up very much until they meet Lux, her great granddaughter. Another thing I didn't mention was this thing I call "Mira State" it is kind of a thing that Miras go into when their emotions get out of control, and they basically destroy everything in their path. When he learns about Aroa, he goes into that state for the first time. So I use her for that, and I guess some angst between Evren and Nerea as well.
Melanthe isn't really a main character. I really just created her when I was writing this up, because I realized I never gave Leander, Soleil, and Castor's mother a name. The Gaieans are really the main antagonists. Sure Phoenix, Melanthe, and Leander are going to be antagonists, but minor ones. She really doesn't come into play that much. She is kind of just a stuck up bitch of a queen who kind of angers Nerea into running away. After a fight with the royal court is when she runs away. When she comes back at the end of the story, we see a little more fighting with her, but she's pretty minor.
I pronounce Fintan exactly like Finten anyway, I pronounce it Fint-ten, and I like the spelling.
Thanks for all your questions! They made me think!

I think the story is a really good story line, but sounds a whole lot like Avatar (the one that was originally cartoon). You know, element benders, really powerful dude who was stuck in one moment for a long time (the main character in Avatar was stuck in ice), and a wiped-out race of benders (or at least an in hiding race of benders)

I like the names, I really don't know how to pronounce Gaiea, and overall the story line is pretty good. I think In Between Dreams is a great title.

“I read books when I was a kid, lots of books. Books always seemed like magic to me. They took you to the most amazing places. When I got older, I realized I couldn't find books that took me to all the places I wanted to go. To go to those places, I had to write some books myself.”
― Pat Murphy, The Wild Girls

"Like everyone else, I am going to die. But the words – the words live on..."
― J. Michael Straczynski

It's true, it does sound a lot like Avatar (which I still love) but it's obvious you put a lot of work into all the names and each character's backstory. I feel like for Gaiea, since it is spelled differently from the original, it should be pronounced differently too, but I did like the suggestion of Gainea, because it makes more sense. You called them 'Gaieans' already, and that pretty much puts any pronunciation but Guy-ans and Guy-uh out the window, but I think Guy-neigh-ans sounds good. If the nation was called Gaiea and pronounced just like the god's name, it would be the only nation with a name that was identical to the god it was named after, right? So I vote for Gainea on that part, if you haven't decided on something else already.

The whole plot is your business, so I'm not going to get into that. But I did want to say that I really like the names you picked. They're all similar, like they belong in the same world, but they're not patterned and identical, which is awesome and I think sometimes a really hard thing to do. I did have one question: Are you planning on posting this story on the internet?

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. - Albert Einstein